Clinton Just Eviscerated Trump on Abortion During Debate

“I will defend Roe v. Wade and I will defend women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.”


At tonight’s final presidential debate in Las Vegas, host Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump whether he would like the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Trump evaded the question, reiterating his promise to appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices and said the question of legal abortion should be left up to the states.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, used the moment as an opportunity to offer a stirring defense of a woman’s right to choose. “We have come too far to have that turn back now,” Clinton said, reminding the audience that Trump has “said women should be punished; that there should be some form of punishment for women who obtain abortions. And I could just not be more opposed to that kind of thinking.”

In a follow-up question, Wallace asked Clinton about her opposition to a ban on late-term abortions. Clinton spoke about the “heartbreaking” decisions that often lead to this procedure (typically, late-term abortions are the result of a mother’s health complication or a severe fetal abnormality), saying, “I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions.”

Trump replied by twisting Clinton’s position on late-term abortion: “Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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